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X LV E T S SCHOL AR SH I P
June was an exceptionally wet month for
Canterbury, which is normally a very dry
area. This resulted in muddy paddocks and a
lack of feed; it wasn't however a cold winter
so at least we didn't have to deal with that.
The main problems as a result of the wet
weather were poorer condition cows and
high cell counts. There were more downer
cows as well, this seems to be hugely
dependent on weather, as in the dry spring
last year we sold only about one-third of
our metabolic (calcium) products compared
with normal.
Shelter is invaluable in helping cows look
after themselves and unfortunately as a result
of our huge, centre pivot irrigators there are
few trees left on farms for this purpose.
Calves are initially kept in sheds for the first
few weeks and then usually are put outside
when the weather becomes suitable at
around 4 weeks of age. We go out in teams
of 2 or 3 from the clinic to disbud calves
often 100-200 at a time.
All calves are sedated, and then we clip,
local and disbud them and additionally
check for extra teats, vaccinate for clostridial
disease and tag them.100 calves usually
takes two of us one and a half hours so it's
quite an efficient production line, and also a
good work out! Once outside, calves are fed
on 50 teat feeders once or twice a day and
usually are offered straw and meal as well.
Unfortunately for the calves, Fonterra buys
colostrum for a very good price which on
some farms can undermine colostral intake.
Infectious diarrhoea seems to be the biggest
problem out here for young calves. Most will
vaccinate the cows against rotavirus. The
sheer numbers of calves on the ground at once
means there can be a lot of infective agents in
the environment which means they are high
risk for picking something up. On the other
hand, fortunately pneumonia is rare here,
probably as a result of the housing situation.
As many of you will be aware following
calving it is very important that the cows
rid themselves of any uterine infections
before they can successfully get back in calf.
Many cows will naturally clear up these
infections with time but because of the 365
day time pressure we generally have to
intervene to speed things up. We use a
device called a metrichecker to check the
cows in large numbers for uterine infections.
Using this enables us to examine cows
during a milking, it is not as accurate as
examination by hand but when you have
1,000 cows to check it's not a bad substitute!
It's basically a small plunger which we push
in towards the cervix and then when we
remove it we look to see how much pus is on
the end. Metrichecking cows 6 weeks post
calving will generally mean around 10% of
them are treated either with injectable or
intrauterine antibiotic, or prostaglandin
depending on how bad they are.
Calving was a busy but hugely varied
and exciting time out here in New Zealand.
I would thoroughly recommend it to anyone
considering doing a season out here, vet
or farmer.
WINTER 2010 ISSUE
LIVESTOCK MATTERS
26